MLB opening day has a throw-back feel

Published: Tuesday, April 04, 2000

Ken Griffey Jr. went home to Cincinnati on Monday, Kenny Rogers went back to the Rangers, and the New York Yankees tried to win on Opening Day -- about the only assignment that has given them trouble the past few years.

Personally, I'm waiting to see the 1860s-era replica locomotive go chugging along the outfield wall at Enron Field. The Houston Astros open their new home stadium later this week, and when they do, it might be the best of the best of the throwback-era ballparks.

Enron Field, the retractable roof stadium in downtown Houston, appears to equal or top Oriole Park at Camden Yards and even that Texas treasure, The Ballpark in Arlington. After 35 years in the comparatively antiseptic Astrodome, here is a brick- and limestone-clad structure with personality.

A televised exhibition game the other night gave everyone a glimpse, and what's not to like?

The flagpole in center field is in play, and there is a 30-degree incline beyond the warning track in center. The idea was taken from the old Crosley Field in Cincinnati or a feature of Fenway Park prior to 1934, take your pick. None of the 11 new ballparks opened in the 1990s incorporated the slope.

I like it. Of course, I don't have to chase down a ball hit to deep center in Enron. I won't be the guy who has to run up the hill and near the flagpole, hoping not to A) bump my head on the pole or B) sprain my ankle on the grade.

My name would have to be Jeff Bagwell for me to like the stadium dimensions any more. Left field is 315 feet from home plate, the left-center power alley just 362. That means you might be able to take Bagwell's 42 home runs a year ago and add 10.

The field dimensions change the game for pitchers and hitters, but the paying customers as well. Along the foul lines, in the corners, the closest seats are within 5 feet of fair territory.

Like most of the new stadiums, the outfield wall bends first one way and then another, and it juts out to 435 feet in center field. But the wall in right is cozy, too: 326 feet, and with a fence only 7-feet tall.

But left field. Left field duels the flagpole and the rise in center for the area with the most charm. To start with, this park is heavy with references and tie-ins to the city's train-tracked past. Left field is scrunched up next to the city's historic and renovated Union Station that opened in 1911 and gave Houston freight and passenger options.

Archwork stretches from above left field across to center, and then, if the game gets out of hand, patrons can just watch the train run. According to a description in the National League Green Book, the replica 57-foot locomotive and coal car will traverse 800 feet of track along the top of the wall and "use smoke, bells and whistles to complement the action on the field."

The San Francisco Giants will debut Pacific Bell Park this week, and it will have a unique feature: With the stadium sitting next to the China Basin Channel, home runs can actually splash down in the water.

So Astros management did not think of everything ("Watch Bagwell go Gulf."), but they did put together a stadium with enough pizzazz to make even the dull games worth attending.